The Lutheran Theological Seminary

The Lutheran Theological Seminary

Interior and exterior repaint work was applied to the main building as well as outer buildings of the Lutheran Seminary prior to it becoming the ALC (Australian Lutheran College). Interior repaint work using a heritage palette scheme included sign writing, painting a marble effect to one fire place and an antique effect to a ceiling rose.

Australian Lutheran College (ALC), formerly Luther Seminary and informally “The Sem”, is a higher education institution serving the Lutheran Church of Australia and a registered teaching institution of University of Divinity. It is located in North Adelaide, South Australia on the corner of Ward and Jeffcott streets. The campus includes a number of single and shared accommodation blocks, a library, a refectory as well as educational facilities.

Although still primarily a theological college, it is also open to students studying at Adelaide University, the University of South Australia, Flinders University, or TAFE, a paradigm reflected in the name change of 2004. Unique among South Australian residential colleges, Australian Lutheran College is equipped to accommodate married students, even with families.

History

Pre Seminary days

Prior to its use as a seminary, the site was used for three different schools or colleges – the North Adelaide Grammar School from 1854-1882; Whinham College from 1882-1898, during which time a boarding house (now Hebart Hall) and a gymnasium-lecture hall (now part of Löhe Memorial Library) were built; and Angas College, owned by John Howard Angas, son of South Australian “patriarch” George Fife Angas and operated as an interdenominational missionary training school until the army took possession of the site for a repatriation hospital in 1916.

Immanuel College and Seminary

In 1922 the United Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia purchased the property for only ₤13,500 on the condition that it was used for Protestant Evangelical religious education. The college and seminary was opened on 25 February 1923 and remained on the site until during World War II when it was given ten days’ notice by the Air Force that the college had to move; upon which it transferred to North Walkerville. The principal was Pastor J. P. Löhe, after whom the library would later be named.

Immanuel Seminary

The seminary was able to remain on the North Adelaide site and did so, expansively renovating the old college site to extend the seminary itself at the end of the war. Hebart Hall was used as a residence for lecturers and tertiary boarders and the gymnasium-lecture hall (“Angas Hall”) for the chapel until its conversion to the library in 1960.

Luther Seminary

With the amalgamation of the UELCA and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Australia (ELCA) in 1966 came the amalgamation of the ELCA’s seminary (Concordia, where the secondary school is still situated) and the UELCA’s North Adelaide seminary. In 1967 extensive building programs began, including additions to the library, the erection of a new boarding house (Graebner Hall) and demolition of the old grammar school to make way for a refectory and extra accommodation (Hamann Hall). The new seminary opened debt-free due to a church appeal which raised $1 million. The increasing number of married students brought the expansion of the campus to include buildings on Jeffcott Street, Archer Street and Ward Court.

Luther Campus

Lutheran Teachers College and the Lay Training Centre were moved to the campus in 1989 and with this the name changed to Luther Campus to reflect the change of role of the site. Attempts were made to find suitable sites for relocation for the institution but these were abandoned in 1990 and the church authorised more works, including the erection of 17 townhouses on Archer Street, a new Student Centre between Graebner Hall and the townhouses. In 1994 the School of Theology (for lay students) joined the campus also.

Back to Luther Seminary

In 1998 the three occupants of Luther Campus came under the authority of one institution, three programs in one school, and the name was changed back to Luther Seminary.

Australian Lutheran College

The 2003 General Synod of the church decided to change the name of the institution to Australian Lutheran College from 1 January 2004, to reflect the nature of the college as an education facility, not just a seminary.

Black Divider Longest

Church Projects

Heritage Church Projects

Commercial Projects

Commercial Heritage Projects

Church Painting

Heritage Church Painting